Glazer Children's Museum Website Home

Origami Animals


Join Team GCM member, Jenna, as she shows you how to create some easy origami animals!

Elephant Goldfish Frog

Materials:

  • Three (3) 6 in. x 6 in. pieces of paper in the colors of your choosing
  • A marker

Elephant Directions:

  1. Make a valley fold which basically means we’re going to fold this paper like a hot dog bun
  2. Then we’re going to open it up and make another valley fold on the other side. You should have 2 lines intersecting each other on your paper
  3. Now you’re going to take the top left corner and fold it over to meet the fold down the center
  4. Then, we’re going to make another valley fold so that the top of the paper touches the bottom of the paper
  5. Next, you’re going to take the top left corner and fold it to meet the center line, similar to what you did previously
  6. Open that fold up carefully because we are about to create something called a reverse fold
  7. Open the fold and flatten it out
  8. That was the last step! Now, all you need to do is draw on its eyes and the elephant’s long trunk!

Goldfish Directions: 

  1. Make a valley fold
  2. Then you are going to fold the top left corner down to make a diagonal fold. It should go from the top right corner to the bottom left corner. Then do the same on the other side
  3. Take the flap on the left side and fold it back
  4. We’re going to make another reverse fold here, but this one is a bit different from the last one. First, take the top corner and fold the tip over, then unfold. Placing your finger in between the fold, use another finger to push the corner in on itself.
  5. Now draw on your eyes, and that’s it!

Frog Directions:

  1. Instead of making a valley fold, we’ll be making folds corner-to-corner. Fold your square paper into a triangle, then do the same on the other side
  2. Don’t unfold. Take one of the corners of the triangle and fold it down
  3. Use your fingers to open the paper and flatten down the top of the fold. This is hard to explain, but easy to do once you get the hang of it!
  4. Take the opposite corner and fold it in at a slight diagonal line, up towards the previous folds
  5. Draw on your eyes and you’ve got a frog!

Team GCM Creator: Jenna